Edit This Favorite

Quitline Iowa Sees Record Number of Calls

Quitline Iowa saw a record number
of calls in January looking for help to quit smoking. Quitline coordinator,
Jeremy Whitaker, says over 5,000 people called for help in January.

Whitaker
says a lot of the calls were driven by the offer of four weeks of free nicotine
patches, gum or lozenges for anyone who called in to 1-800-QUIT-NOW. He says
they had a great response when they made the same offer last year and were
surprised to see an even bigger response this year. He says the chemical help
is just part of what they offer, as free coaching is also an important part of
trying to quit.

He says
quitting smoking is a little different for everyone, and some people can quit
with the four weeks of nicotine patches, gum or lozenges but other take more
time and help to quit. Whitaker says January is traditionally their busiest
year as people seek to quit smoking as part of a new year’s resolution. He says
the economy has also been having an impact on people’s desire to quit.

Whitaker
says a pack of cigarettes currently costs around $5.18, so if you smoke a
pack-a-day, that is over $1,800 a year. He says that’s good financial
incentive to quit, but he hopes people really want to quite for health reasons.
While the offer of the free four-week supply of the nicotine products is over,
Whitaker says the Quitline can still give you lot of help to quit smoking.

Just call
1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), or go to:www.quitlineiowa.org. There were
5,284 calls to the quitline in January of this year, up one-thousand calls from
last January.